You sprain your ankle, what do you do? RICE! Rest, ice, compression, elevation. It's what I've been taught for as long as I can remember, and is still pretty standard advice taught to therapists. But lately there's been a shift toward "active mobilization" instead of rest for sports injuries like sprains and strains (I wrote an article about that trend a few years ago.) In the current issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine , an editorial calls for a critical re-evaluation of RICE (note: the full text is currently free to read). In fact, they call for a whole new acronym: POLICE (Protection, Optimal Loading, Ice, Compression, Elevation). It's a subtle shift of emphasis: instead of rest, you start with protection immediately after the injury during the acute stage, then quickly shift to "optimal loading." The idea is to avoid prolonged favoring of the injured area, ...